Fact-based approaches are clearly more grounded than opinion-based approaches, no matter the topic.

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Nobody said otherwise. But the facts your stating do not make actual experiences of other members and what they use any less valuable. Sometimes facts are good for Jepoardy but other than that it makes you boring.

I started this thread to shed some light (pun intended) on some useful and little-known facts ... so that people could make informed decisions rather than only having the 'I think this looks good' and 'I'll take a shot in the dark/guess' methods of approach to their market choices.

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Shot in the dark methods? Like what? Companies sell a product people buy it. Its called free commerce. If you dont like it dont buy it. I just dont see why you have to create a thread offer up some info then call everyone stupid who doesnt fall at your feet and thank you for it. Thats certainly in proportion.

I did not start this thread to engage in a 'I think this is what works/looks good' discussion. That's a completely different topic... meaning we're off topic.

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You better state the ground rules of what can be added to your threads in the future and save yourself from having to deal with us inferior posters.

THANK YOU for putting this thread together. I've been looking around for this information for a while. I'm a new owner of a 98 Silverado. I do want to put HIDs in them, but I'm so sick of seeing HIDs thrown into halogen housings and halogen projectors. My DD is a car and it's bad enough that so many people do this with throwing light all up in everyone's faces, but this issue is only amplified in trucks(especially lifted trucks) because the lights are already windshield height to most cars. I've been contemplating building a shroud frame to make my own projectors in my car. I've got HIDs in a set of fog lights and they do give off a lot more light(actually making them functional) but I don't have to have them on. I've even got extra housings laying around to do this. I fell into the mistake of not knowing the difference between HID and Halogen projectors so I started mocking up my housings with halogen HIDs before I realized there was a difference. I just haven't gotten around to finding a proper set of HID projectors to utilize. Mostly this has been a time issue(just got married a18 months ago and being married takes way more time than dating exclusively). Pricing on projectors and aftermarket HID projectors for retrofitting has come down and I have seen additional options just in the last year or so. IF I ever get around to making these housings I will be doing an "all-on" mod so that when my brights are on, all my lights are on. That way I can look like a train coming down the road when people have their HIDs all in my face.

Personally I'm not one that looks for weird colors. I just want a neutral color(4500k). Although I've heard that wattage will cause a slight difference in color as well.

I've been looking for information around LEDs as well. Now you can get LEDs that put out massive amounts of light. Unfortunately, as much misinformation there is around HIDs, there is 10 times that amount of bad and incorrect information in the LED world. It makes it even more difficult to figure stuff out.

What info did u need on LEDs? 4500k is more of a factory yellow, 6k is more of a white like the light found in the escalade lights

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This is the 1st place I've read that says that white is about 6k. My 4500k certainly look "white" and make my standard lights look "yellow" or at least "yellowish". I'll post some pics later. Although I just did a bunch of google searches and I was finding inconsistency in what the Kelvin scale is as pertaining to color. I've been spending a bit of time on candlepowerforums.com lately and if you want to find a plethora of information around light/lumens/beam pattern/etc, then go hang out there for a bit. I'll see if I can find some better links around color also.

As far as LEDs, there aren't(or at least hasn't been) a lot of standards around LEDs. Anywhere you go there will be packages advertising LEDs but little information around actual light output or color on them. Take for example a lot of LED flashlights you can get anywhere advertising "15 leds" but in reality, the flashlight only puts out about 30 lumens(or less). I have a flashlight that is 1 LED and puts out 150 lm(runs on 1 AA battery) and another one that has a single LED that is putting out 645 lm(runs on 1 LI-Ion 18650 battery/laptop cell). In flashlights power consumption and heat are major issues as well with LEDs. In auto applications power would not be an issue. I mean you'd have to adjust the power appropriately to the LED(s), but power consumption is not an issue. Heat is still an issue and dissipation would need to be figured. If I could get enough information around retrofitting LEDs, they would be much easier to deal with than HIDs I would think, but further research is needed to validate this assumption.

I prefer gathering my info from my EE undergrad. I was wrong however, 4500 is the whitest. Here is a picture from my text in my advanced lighting design course.

Fixture output for an LED isn't measures off single "bulbs" like other lights. For LED the lumens refer to the light output of the entire fixture. This is because each fixture can have dozens or even hundreds of LEDs. There is a very strict standard surrounding LEDs. This isnt the right thread for them but I will start a new thread later today after my last exam for the day

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I prefer gathering my info from my EE undergrad. I was wrong however, 4500 is the whitest. Here is a picture from my text in my advanced lighting design course.

Fixture output for an LED isn't measures off single "bulbs" like other lights. For LED the lumens refer to the light output of the entire fixture. This is because each fixture can have dozens or even hundreds of LEDs. There is a very strict standard surrounding LEDs. This isnt the right thread for them but I will start a new thread later today after my last exam for the day

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I even hear some people claim that the 4200K level is the "truest white", but most companies go from like 4k to 4.5k to 5k in HID bulbs. I've seen a couple out there with a 4300K bulb. As far as the LEDs, I don't want to stray off topic on that. While there may be standards in manufacturing, there certainly haven't been standards in advertising(or at least loose standards). This is getting better as I've noticed lm and other things more noticeably advertised recently.

Back to the topic on hand and perhaps this is a question for OP(or others who may know). When purchasing HID projector housings for retrofit, what identifying factors can be used to determine if it's truly for an HID bulb, or if it's just a halogen projector claiming HID status? I suppose a standard answer is going to be a reputable seller/business, but are there other ways to tell from a layman's inspection?

Back to the topic on hand and perhaps this is a question for OP(or others who may know). When purchasing HID projector housings for retrofit, what identifying factors can be used to determine if it's truly for an HID bulb, or if it's just a halogen projector claiming HID status? I suppose a standard answer is going to be a reputable seller/business, but are there other ways to tell from a layman's inspection?